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Saturday, February 5, 2011

A part of dinner last night was those cute Hassleback potatoes and after dinner, Alexis wondered aloud if we could do that with sweet potatoes. Why not? So I tried it for lunch. You could also cook this in the oven at the same time and temps, but fire roasting adds that extra touch.

Light your charcoal. Set up your charcoal grill for an indirect set up (cooking over a void with coals to the sides) at 425f.

Slice the potatoes almost all the way through in 1/8" intervals. I picked up a trick that makes that easier somewhere on the Internet and can't remember where. So I can't give appropriate credit but I didn't come up with this genius idea.

When cutting the potatoes, lay a chopstick on both sides of the sweet potato like this:

That way, you won't cut all the way through by accident.

Drizzle the 2 Tbsp butter and salt over the potatoes.

Place on the grill and roast for 40-45 minutes at 425f.

Veggies + Fire = Good

Remove and let cool for 5 minutes. You might need a wide spatula to remove them without breaking.

Meanwhile melt the 3 Tbsp of butter and add the agave nectar (or honey), cinnamon, and red pepper. Drizzle the butter mixture over the potatoes and serve.

I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes, I usually make them because my life loves them (this was a practice run for Valentines and our anniversary coming up). But I really liked these. The fire roasting enriched the flavor and the velvety butter sauce has sweet with a subtle heat to it.

Deep Fried Hassleback Potatoes

While that was cooking, curiosity struck again. I wondered if you could deep fry small russets done hassleback style so I tried it with two of them. I deep fried them for 3 minutes at 375f. As soon as they came out of the fryer, I hit them with kosher salt.

I topped them with melted butter, garlic, parsley, and chopped bacon.

They were good but I prefer them baked. The petals or slices open up better during baking whereas the frying happened so quick that I had to "reslice" some of the pieces to open them manually before salting.

Chris - I love how you pay attention to the details and always take care to include them in your post. The tip about the chopsticks, using a wide spatula to remove them carefully, different options such as deep-frying, etc. You always go the extra mile!

Love these and can see they would be a big hit!

Do you find that you like agave nectar? I've only used it once (as a sweetener in homemade ice cream). I have some left in the pantry. Guess I should be experimenting with it!

I love sweet potatoes - they're crazy good for you. But I'll stick to the roasted ones. In spite of knowing that if you deep fry almost anything, throw sea salt on then top it with melted butter, garlic, parsley, and chopped bacon it going to taste fabulous. Love your photos and the chopstick trick!

I learned how to make these in high school cooking class! I haven't made them since. Don't know why, now that I've seen yours I wish I had been making them all along. Totally delicious! Especially the sweet ones... and fried? Genius.

Well, I learned two new things already this morning! I didn't know sliced potatoes were called Hasselbacks! But I could never call them that, not until the Seahawks get a new quarterback - the loser! The other thing I learned? I'm barely hanging onto THIRD place! So go vote for me again! xo, Nan